The birch is the tree that represents Russia. This is not only because birch grows across all of Russia, but because its wood, its roots, its leaves, and even its bark are all used closely in the lives of Russians with nothing thrown away.
Birch is also rich in nutrients. In particular, birches growing in Siberia store a wide variety of nutrients in order to survive in extreme conditions. Among the roughly one hundred species of birch, the few that are rich in nutrients and outstanding in pharmacological function are classified and managed by the state as medicinal herbs.
However, no matter how full of good nutrients birch may be, extracting them and taking them in is in reality an extremely difficult thing. This is because birch itself is mostly woody material, and the useful nutrients exist only in minute amounts spread throughout the whole tree. It is technically difficult and economically not worth the calculation.
And yet there is a separate storehouse that has gathered only birch's excellent nutrients intact. That is the chaga mushroom. Chaga puts down roots into a living birch tree and over 15 to 30 years takes the birch's nutrients and stores them. If, like ordinary mushrooms, its lifespan were only a few days, or if it grew on dead wood, this would be impossible from the outset.
The birches on which chaga mainly grows are the species Betula pubescens and Betula platyphylla. These are the birches mentioned earlier that the Russian government classifies and manages as medicinal herbs. Chaga does not grow on every birch tree. This is one of the reasons chaga's efficacy is outstanding.
Chaga's main nutritional components — that is, chromogen complex, beta-glucan, polyphenols, flavonoids, and various minerals and dietary fiber — are all substances created in the process of taking the birch's nutrients and storing them. In the end, their source lies in the birch.
But if dozens or hundreds of chaga mushrooms were to grow on a single birch tree, the story would be different. Arithmetically, the nutrients held by one chaga would amount to only one part in several tens or one part in several hundreds of the nutrients of a single birch tree. Yet chaga grows only alone. Two chaga mushrooms cannot grow on a single birch tree.
In the end, the birch robbed of its nutrients dies without completing its average lifespan of 100 years. It is in a state of malnutrition, its nutrients depleted. And those nutrients are stored intact in the chaga. This is why we say that eating one chaga is like eating the whole of a single birch tree's nutrients.
It varies with the weight of the chaga, but for example, one small 25g bottle of chaga powder sold by our company contains the nutrients of at least two living birch trees. And thirty years of time have gone into it as well.
I hope you take in the nutrients of birch and all become healthier.
- Kinam Oh, kinam_oh@hanmail.net
